"When I heard the branches hitting the outside of the plane, I knew we were in trouble," Patel said. "From then on, I just concentrated on keeping the nose up until we crashed."

Ditching his plane in the woods of this rural eastern Connecticut town at 1:30 a.m. Saturday wasn't on Patel's itinerary when he took off from Block Island a short time earlier.

But for the 22-year-old Berlin resident and his passenger, Winonna Kress, 20, of Enfield, what could have ended in tragedy merely left them a little shaken. Both emerged from the crash unhurt.

Patel and Kress huddled in the woods for five hours until dawn, when they ventured out to a road and flagged down a motorist. They contacted state police, who located the downed plane at 11:35 a.m. by flying over in a police aircraft.

State Trooper George Vangel of the Troop D Barracks in Danielson said the cause of the crash was under investigation. The plane Patel was flying was rented from Windham Aviation, Vangel said.

Patel, who said he has been a pilot for a little more than a year and has logged more than 200 hours of flying time, said the fog was very thick on the approach to Windham Airport.

"I feel lucky neither of us was hurt," Patel said. "It's not something I hope to go through again.